In my previous web-log entry I wrote that I was looking for a new link to Paul Humber's website. The old link had dissappeared and I found it a pity that the book that Mr. Humber so generously made free downloadable for the winemakers community would get lost.

A few readers of this web-log pointed me to the Way-Back Machine. Otherwise known as the internet archive. This organisation strives to making a complete copy of the entire internet, each month again !!!!http://www.archive.org/index.php

On that site can you can fill in a web-page link and so look at the history of this web-page.Paul Humbers site emerged flawlessly despite the fact that the whole web-page does not exists anymore !!!

However that was not what I was looking for. I wanted a new existing link.

Another reader pointed me to Google-Books where a copy of Mr. humbers book could be found. And he also pointed me to a commercail site that held a copy of the book.I thanked him for the links but did not want to use them as I could not be sure that the books were posted there with permission of the original author.

Despite the fact that I found the site myself I really want to thank Anthony, Arjan, Rodney and Thomas for their reaction.

Ok, on to the subject I wanted to write about this entry.

There is a lot to be told about honey. Honey as a sweetener is known for a long time, longer as table sugar. And we can make wine with honey. A wine made with honey is called mead.

Table sugar is a solid material. Honey is often fluid. So honey consists not only of sugar. Part of honey is water. Now better quality honey contains less water.

But how do I know how much sugar is actually present in my honey.

This problem rose sometime ago when I was making a wine in which I wanted to replace the needed sugar by honey.

Now in the Netherlands we do have a law that enforces manufacturers to list ingredients on the packaging of food products.

The manufacturer Euroshopper lawfully listed the ingredients on the jar of honey I bought from this brand. Their honey contains 80 gram sugar per 100 gram honey.

However I had some jars from the brand "Het Zuiden". This producer did not list anything on the label.

Now the solution could be easy. Take 25 gram honey of the barnd of which the details are know and dissolve that in 250 ml water. Now measure the SG.Next take 25 gram honey of the unknown kind, dissolve that in 250 ml water and also take a reading from this. When the SG reading of both types is equal you can safely assuma that they contain the same amount of sugar. When they differ you have a problem.

My problem was even more complicated. The jar of Euroshopper Honey was empty at the time I got this idea.

So I started reading. Jan van Schaik, a famous Dutch author of winemaking books, wrote in one of his books that honey consists of 80% sugar. The Kitzinger Weinbuch states that hoeny consists for 78% to 80% of sugar. Now both confirm Euroshoppers packaging.

Ken Schramm states in "The compleat Meadmaker" that there are several quality classes of honey. The highest classes being A and B may not contain more as 18.6% water. Class C can contain up to 20% water.

So I could presume that the honey would contain 80% sugar.

Now presume that this was not right. Imagine you get a jar of cheap honey from a manufacturer that does not meets quality standards. Imagine a manufacturer that adds water to his honey to pump up the volume and so earns more money. This is done regularly with food-products over here....

So if the honey was of lower quality I would add less sugar to my must as I thought I was adding. My wine would then contain less alcohol in the end.

So I needed a way to determine approximate sugar-contents.

Now that is where relativity comes in. I am not talking about the Einstein kind. I am talking about finding a method to relate an unknow quantity to a know quantity.

My thoughts were like this.If I could make a fluid in which a predetermined quantity of sugar was present, I could measure the SG. If I next took a fluid in which I did the same amount of honey, I could see how much both SG's would differ. That gives a relativity between the two SG's and that gives me a figure to work with.

This all sounds very complicated but it really is not. I CAN make a fluid with a predefined amount of sugar.

The measurements I present here are all done with a refractometer, but can be done as easily with a hydrometer. The result will be the same.

I started with weighing 25 gram table sugar.

The sugar was poured into a measuring beaker and filled with water till the volume reached 250ml.Next I stirred vigorously to dissolve the sugar.

A drop was put on the glass of the refractometer which pointed to an SG of 1.040.

I emptied the measuring beaker and made sure it was dry inside.

Next I poured 25 gram honey into the beaker.

Again I poured water in till the volume reached 250ml.

This mixture of water and honey was also stirred vigorously.

The refractometer reading now pointed out that the SG was 1031-1032.

Now I had a reference and could do some simple math.

25 Gram sugar had an sg of 1.04025 Gram Honey had an SG of 1.031

So the same quantity in weight had a lower SG, just as was to be expected. But how much lower was it ???

How much is 31 as a percentage of 40. That's junior high-school calculations: 31 / 40 * 100 = 77.5%

So they honey had 77.5% of the SG of the sugar. This is true when the SG is 1.031. I was however a bit in doubt as the SG can also be 1.032. If that is the case the percentage would be exactly 32/40 * 100 = 80%.

So, I had bought a good quality honey. Honey from which every 100 gram contained 80% sugar being 80 gram sugar.

Concluding.

Even if you have certain ingredients in house from which you do not know the axact data, by clever measuring you can determine a lot of info. Make sure you have a fixed reference and relate the unknown product to that reference.Never quit to fast and keep thinking logically.

Luc Volders

Copyright 2009No part of this publication and pictures may be reproducedin any form (printed text, web-pages, weblogs or forums)without written permission of the author.